British Mini Club Show - Bingley 2012

IF YOU liked the Mini gathering in Llandudno a couple of weeks ago then you'll love these pictures from the British Mini Club Show, held yesterday at Bingley in Staffordshire.

While there parts aplenty for the serious enthusiast, and a chance to meet rally legend Paddy Hopkirk, for me the stars of the show came from the seemingly endless rows of old Minis, in every shape, size, colour and condition you could possibly imagine.

Life On Cars took these pictures at the show:


















For more information, check out the British Mini Club's excellent report on all the winners at the event.

Support classic cars by signing 16,000-strong petition

THE Rover SD1, the Jaguar XJ-S, the Ferrari 512 BB, the Lotus Esprit, the MK1 Golf GTI and a host of other classic cars all have one thing in common.

They're all well over 30 years old but - thanks to laws a new petition is calling for an overhaul of - they're not eligible for any exemptions when it comes to road tax.

Why not? Well, the road tax exemption for old cars goes back to the 1980s, when a rolling rule covering cars over 25 years old was brought in, meaning your car was exempt as soon as it'd survived its first quarter of a century. Unfortunately, New Labour changed the rules in 1998, ending the rolling rule and leaving it so that no classic made after January 1, 1973 was eligible.

I support exemptions for owners of older cars - one of the reasons I can afford to keep a forty-year-old MG on the road is that I'm granted concessions on tax and insurance, in recognition of the fact that classic cars tend to spend their days going to shows and making people smile.

But it's absurd that a new generation of classic cars is being forgotten by this rule, something which at least 16,000 of you have already said you're not happy about by signing the new petition.

As the petition's author, Daryl Davey, puts it:

"History did not simply stop in 1972. These are not cars which are driven everyday but rather on sunny weekends, to attend enthusiast shows etc.

"It is vitally important that we help to preserve this important part of British motoring history."

If more than 100,000 people sign it between now and August 5, the Government will be required to debate the issue in Parliament, giving a glimmer of hope to a new generation of classic car owners.

If you care about keeping a generation of classic cars on the road, sign it now and show the Government what you think...

The Southport car company getting charged up by electric motoring

A SOUTHPORT man has joined forces with a French electric car firm in a bid to encourage businesses across the north west to use more eco-friendly vehicles.

David Cowperthwaite, of Fylde Road, has teamed up with the makers of the Mia electric van in a bid to persuade companies to reduce their carbon footprint, and said that the unusual vehicle has already attracted attention from police forces, local authorities and the Royal Mail.

He has set up the Marshside-based firm TYC Electric Vehicles to help distribute the van in the UK, and told Life On Cars:

“I took the Mia to Liverpool last week to show it to an organisation interested in trying out electric vehicles, and we went down the M57. Even though we did a lot of miles and had the wipers and the lights on at 50mph it just kept on going and kept its charge, so electric vehicles can go a lot longer than people think.

"The organisations that have tried it have been really impressed with its performance and by how quiet it was, although with it being middle-hand-drive quite a few of them couldn't get used to sitting in the middle! The vehicle leaves no carbon footprint at all and you don't have to pay any road tax on it, so companies could save themselves thousands if they ran one over a couple of years instead of a van powered by fossil fuel."

Electrically-powered vans have this week been given a fresh boost by the Government after the Department For Transport announced that they would offer grants to businesses which buy them, which ministers say will save firms as much as £8,000 per vehicle as well as helping to reduce carbon emissions.

Among the organisations which have expressed an interest in the Mia is Merseytravel, who declined to comment but did confirm they had been looking at the vehicle as a possible addition to their fleet in the future.

Transport Minister Norman Baker said: "Electric vehicles are the arrowhead for a low carbon revolution in motoring and as more models come to market we’ll begin to see sales gather pace. Car buyers have had a year to take advantage of our grant and now it’s time for van buyers to get their chance to go electric. This is great news for businesses given the lower running costs of these vehicles – fleet buyers tell us that this is one of the most important factor influencing their decision on what to buy.

“It is radical initiatives like these which will allow us to create a transport system that both cuts carbon and is an engine for economic growth.”

Why I love mild winters

THIS TIME last year the last place you'll have found me was behind the wheel of a classic car.

Winter is cold, wet, slippy and salty, which is exactly why you wouldn't want to venture out in a forty-year-old sports car crafted by the hands of British Leyland. But where last year there was gritting there's now grey skies and drizzle, so tonight I roused the MGB from hibernation and took it to the pub.

It is the polar opposite of the MX-5 which competes for my love and attention. It isn't a masterclass through the corners and nor is it especially fast, but it makes a wonderful noise as it burbles down the back roads.

But to understand why I love it you just have to look at this night shot I took earlier; it is, for want of a better word gorgeous. With perfect proportions, lashings of chrome and the right stance, it's a British sports car to be proud of.

I just hope there isn't a cold snap on the way.

Life is F.A.B if you can afford to customise a Rolls-Royce Ghost

RUMOURS that Lady Penelope - International Rescue's chief representative in the UK - has returned to Rolls-Royce's showrooms have yet to be confirmed.

However, judging by these new images of the company's latest customised model, the Rose Quartz Ghost, it shouldn't be too long before TV fans are treated to a new series of the iconic Sixties action show Thunderbirds.


Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Rolls-Royce CEO, said of the company's new customisation programme:

“It is always our goal to exceed our clients’ highest expectations and fulfill their innermost desires.

"With highly bespoke Phantom and Ghost models, we are able to achieve this. The passion with which our bespoke craftspeople create these beautiful cars is reflected in some truly outstanding examples delivered across the globe last year."


Lady Penelope, of course, was famed for using a pink Rolls Royce in the original Gerry Anderson series, although for the 2004 movie adaptation she switched her loyalties to Ford, using a model based largely on the company's Thunderbird convertible.

The new Porsche Boxster

IT MIGHT still feel like the dead of winter outside but that hasn't stopped Porsche announcing a new version of an open-top sports car favourite.

The Stuttgart supercar makers said the third generation of the Boxster will go on sale this spring with an all-new body, a completely revised chassis and a range of new flat six engines, and as with its two predecessors is hoping to be the keen driver's choice of convertible.

A Porsche spokesman said: "The styling of the new Boxster clearly signals the unique driving experience on offer; with shorter front and rear overhangs, significantly forward-shifted windscreen, a flatter silhouette and expressive edges. Inside, the passengers are enclosed by a new fully electric hood, which now dispenses with a compartment lid for the convertible top when stowed.

"The interior design offers the driver and passenger more space and reflects the new Porsche outline, while the distinctive centre console – originating in the Carrera GT – further improves ergonomics."

The Boxster goes on sale on April 28, with the basic version starting at £37,589 and the Boxster S starting from £45,384.

The old Renault 5, not the new one, is the perfect car for Cameron's Britain

TORIES and Liberal Democrats, look away now. The buzzword I’ve heard most since the establishment of Cameron’s Britain is “austerity”.

Blame who you like but austerity is everywhere, from the library that shut down six months ago to the vacant shops dotting the town centres. The TV screens are awash with anarchic imagery of Greek people burning things and news correspondents looking confused, unsure of which political party or city banker to blame it all on. Everyone knows these are austere times. Except Renault.

The French, you see, are reckoning on a reinvention of the iconic Renault 5 as a way to light up the supermini market in the way the latest Clio and Twingo haven’t, but they’re making the mistake of tilting it squarely at the Citroen DS3. This, in Cameron’s Britain, is a mistake.

I like to think I know a bit about the Renault 5 because I owned one and absolutely loved it. While the fact my very ropey Campus model cost just £100 helped, it really was the archetypal austerity car. Due to the fact it came with absolutely no equipment at all the engineering effort went into making sure the few bits you did get worked perfectly, and even after 120,000 miles it still started on the button every single time. I suspected it’d survive everything up to and including a light nuclear blast.

It was also much, much quicker than an ancient 1.4 hatchback had any right to be and easily the most spacious car I’ve owned. Both, I suspect, down to there being absolutely nothing in the way of luxuries to weigh it down or clutter it up. Prison cells come better equipped these days than the old 5 did.

But the new one, if predictions are right, won’t be a car for peasants and paupers, but a posh one with all sorts of unnecessarily bourgeois equipment like cruise control and electric windows and central locking. In the old one, you were lucky if you got a working heater!

What Cameron’s Britain of spending cuts and soaring unemployment needs isn’t a Renault 5 that’s weighed down with pricey electrical equipment that’ll only break anyway. It needs a real replacement for the old warhorse, which offers cash-strapped families a five star Euro NCAP safety rating – another Renault tradition, don’t forget – and absolutely nothing else so that they too can afford a brand new car.

Then again, even if Renault does bring out a new and rather more decadent reinvention of the 5 it won’t reach us until at least 2014. Maybe they know something about an economic recovery the rest of us don’t?